Added to her familiar set of hits, will be music from Vanessa’s forthcoming album, tipped to be named V. Vanessa claims that fan’s can expect a near rollercoaster of styles when it finally hits. “There’s a bit of R&B, some rock, to soul, and pop, but with a sense of humour as well… I’ve never really been about one type of music.” The album itself, although promoted last year, has been delayed until March, Vanessa explains. “The only problem really was I didn’t commit to doing a whole bunch of shows to promote it, and really you have to do that even if you’re just going to put out a new single. I decided to push the release date forward to a time when I could get around the country and properly promo it, because I spend a lot of my time over in LA at the moment.” After her split from manager/co-songwriter Mark Holden in 2005, Amorosi began working with various overseas producers and songwriters – including Mary J. Blige and MachoPsycho – since her 2008 release, Somewhere In The Real World, Amorosi claims, “Its been life on the road ever since.” The starlet who brought us Absolutely Everybody and Shine has certainly grown up of late.
Moving through genres has its advantages for artist not wanting to be pinned down to one sound, but Vanessa claims she was a long time even arriving at the decision to be a pop artist, and so learned many trades a long the way. “What I eventually realised I wanted to do was just write the kinds of songs I loved dancing to as a kid, you know, just fun and catchy songs that loads people seemed to like!” She adds, “I’ve always loved rock and had that rock edge and I think that’s coming to the fore a lot more in my recent shows, but then for a long time I had this image of the ‘pop princess’ who was gonna dance around in crop-tops, and I never wanted to be that person.” Vanessa’s a willing subject when it comes to her image being a little tarnished. She happily proclaims, “I used to be this kind of girl next door type, but now I think the girl next door’s gone a bit out of control in the last five years!” News of her performing at private functions for with Carl Williams’ family and associates shocked those in the music world who saw Amorosi as a ‘squeaky clean pop star’, but Vanessa herself was thrilled with the notoriety.
“Oh look, that was just a gig and it was fun to do, so why not? I mean I’ve had the a lot of stuff said about me that people were probably shocked by; I’m supposed to have two kids, in one report, and in another I’m a lesbian or whatever, but its part of the territory so I’ve learned to enjoy it and play along.” In her live shows, Vanessa’s encore includes a pole dance performance, as if to give a final blow to her ‘pop princess’ past. The show-stopping finale, Amorosi says, is “A full on adrenalin high!” She laughs, “I love seeing people’s reactions in the audience when I do that – I think some people think ‘wow, what an ego she must have!’ but that’s what makes me get on stage in the first place and want to do music. It’s what drives me to create and perform. So what?” The way she sees it, Vanessa has a positive message in her performances for kids who maybe don’t have the level of confidence she has learned to display. “I just think these days with cyber bullying, it’s so easy for kids to just pick up their phone and suddenly they have this message that they don’t tell anyone about because maybe it’s a personal attack on their sexuality or their body size or something, and it just eats away at their confidence and can be a massive set back when you’re young, you know. I’m all about telling kids to ignore put-downs by people who don’t even know what you’re true self is like. Your confidence can be a hard thing to mend once its damaged, so its important to not let people’s put-downs bother you. Life’s too short!”
BY LEIGH SALTER
